A Little War and Noise
by DarkAngelSnapeLover
Summary: A lady general faces the biggest challenge of her life, and the strangest, when she accidentally steps into The Twilight Zone.


A LITTLE WAR AND NOISE

"Ma'am, I hate to bother you so late, but it is news from the enemy. They can't go on. They're pulling into port tomorrow morning and they're going to sign our peace treaty. We can all go home! The war's over!" the messenger said excitedly. The lady general did not look up from her desk. She did not look excited, and in fact, she looked quite sad.

"Tell the men on the bridge to change out course to their neutral site. I'll be apart of the meeting, but now…I'm going to my cabin. You can handle this, right?" she asked.

"Yes, Ma'am," he nodded. He watched her walk away and then sighed. "I guess it all love and war for some…," he whispered to himself before walking to the bridge. The ship turned from gloom and doom to excited cheers in a matter of minutes, but the lady general was nowhere to be found.

****

"The war is over. The war, which lasted two decades, ended last night in a sudden turn of events. The Soviets ran out of man power! They have filed for bankruptcy and are calling for peace with everyone so that the world can help them clean up their­­––,"

Samantha turned off the television. She had worked on a ship for the past twenty years, patrolling the frontlines with a crew that dwindled from one hundred to thirty within those years. Now, she was lost without the war. She couldn't walk right from being on the sea for so many years, but she used a cane to help her. She felt as if she was growing old, and she hated being away from the life she had known for so long. It was like quitting a drug cold turkey, and her dreams were where she experienced withdrawal. She would dream of the boat, being on the boat, being apart of the boat, and then she would see the bombs and the missiles, and her heart would race because this is what she went through every day for the past twenty years.

Samantha had no family left. When she was nineteen, her family took a boating trip while she was in basic training, but they never returned. She found a husband at the end of basic training, and they bought a house in Martha's Vineyard. When the war started, Samantha immediately went without hesitation. After two years, she sent her husband a letter telling him that she was going to the front line until the war was over. He didn't reply. Five years after she sent the letter to him, he finally replied, only to inform her that his father had finished paying for the house so that she could live there when she returned from war, but he was moving on with Evelyn Taylor. Samantha had never heard of her, but she signed the divorce papers anyway. War was taking over her life, and she loved it. She felt like the ring on her finger was a burden to her, something to distract her from her rewards, so she easily slipped it off and through it into the Pacific, not even waiting to watch it fall. Then, she discovered his death from a bomb the Soviets dropped on Washington DC. He had become a congressman and Evelyn Taylor was his secretary. Both were killed, ending her connection with anyone in America, and Samantha liked this. Now, she was happy to be alone. Talking about the war made her want it back, so she made her messengers take care of it. The obliged, but mostly because of her rank, but now they were even taking that away. She was forty, and they wanted her to retire. The threat was over, so why not?

"Because that was my life," Samantha told them. "And I want to keep every bit of it I can. I'll do anything for The Service, I'll go help rebuild, I don't care. I want my life back."

But her wishes were not granted. Two months after the war officially ended, Samantha was forced into retirement because of her back. Being on water all those years grinded her vertebrates together, making the joining pieces weak, and causing her to apply not only for disability, but retirement. To make matters worse, she'd either have to hire help or go into a nursing facility. So, Samantha chose to hire help.

The first help she got introduced her to gardening. As long as someone was there, Samantha could do it. She started with simple flowers, but then decided to plant vegetables. Her help called in her husband, a Southern Boy who lived on a vegetable farm until he found her, then he moved to the city and became an inspector for the FDA. He began tilling the land beside the house, and much to everyone's surprise, he found a box with hand-carved detailing surrounding it. Samantha left it closed until that night when Merriam, her night nurse, arrived. Merriam helped her break the lock, but then excused her to look inside.

At first, Samantha thought it was just a white handkerchief with blue embroidering of the letters S and G, but when she opened it, a silver necklace fell into her lap. A pendant was attached of a frame. Samantha researched the pendant and discovered that it was enamel. She didn't care what it was though. She had already taken to wearing it, and never taking it off, not even for bathing or working outside.

Her first help left soon after her night nurse passed away, so Samantha chose an African-American woman named Shabrika to help her. Shabrika was very strong and was able to help her harvest the vegetables she had planted. Once the harvesting was over, Shabrika showed her how to preserve them and pickle them. Samantha was happy for the help, and Shabrika was happy to give it, but soon she moved of due to an unexpected pregnancy. So, Samantha was alone again, and she loved it. A man delivered her groceries once a week, and for five extra dollars he would put them up for her. A cleaner came twice a week along with a nurse specializing in bathing handicapped people. The nurses would only help her with daily things, so she decided not to choose another one. She was content being alone, left in her thoughts of the days of war, the days where she was at peace.

Samantha celebrated her forty-fifth birthday just as talks began of another conflict. Germany and North Korea had aligned themselves together, and the two planned to develop missiles that could take out anything from anywhere. The plan had yet to be carried out, but debates had begun over whether or not it was necessary to interfere. A debate was aired at seven one evening, and it would last for several hours. Samantha planned to watch every minute.

"So, Mr. Sheppard, you would like to lead a task force that would take down the developing bases for missiles. Have you done any further research on the subject, and have decided on which force you would use to do this?"

"I have done further research on the subject, but I cannot discuss the results on-air due to security reasons, but I can tell you that the Navy and the Marines will be the ones carrying out my plans."

"Whoo! Go Navy!" Samantha cheered, waving a flag with the Navy emblem. She enjoyed vocalizing and arguing with the television, and tonight was no exception, particularly when the Doves took the stage. They wanted to leave alone Germany and North Korea because they were not actually planning to use the missiles. "Bull!" Samantha replied to this. "NO PEACE, MORE WAR! NO PEACE ,MORE WAR!" Samantha began to chant. She suddenly grew tired and fell asleep. She missed the final part of the debate, and she also missed the breaking news that came around the end of the program: Germany and North Korea initiated war against the United States, and all hell was about to break lose.

When Samantha woke up, everything was the same as she remembered. She had to roll off the bed and into the floor just to sit up straight. When Samantha did this, she found herself in peak health again. She almost felt like she was dreaming, except for one thing: the ocean. She could feel its force rocking the large ship like it was a rubber duck in a bathtub. Her dreams never had the ocean's movement because in reality she was on dry land. Samantha then looked in the tiny mirror she had for touchups of cuts she could get from falling paint. She looked years younger. She was her old self completely. And she was content.

War was breaking out everywhere across the ocean. Submarines were patrolling the waters from below, jets were monitoring the sea from above, and Samantha's boat was aiding in bombing the shoreline from a hundred miles away. The crew was even its same size, but none of them were the same people. She wasn't sure of this, but then she realized they only resembled the crew from before. The messenger assigned to the ship looked like he was a close brother from the one before, but he wasn't the same. The very war she was fighting wasn't the same; _she_ wasn't the same, yet she was. It was like this situation mirrored the war situation from before, but nothing was alike. Before, weather seemed to be there worse enemy, but currently the only forces of any strength were from the submarines passing below them. Luckily, Samantha had yet to notice this. She was making rounds, which meant she was back to leading her part of the war as a general, meaning that she was content.

The war lasted a full year before they saw any true action. Another ship pulled near, and the two began firing cannons at each other. Messengers would report to the lady general every time a confirmed death occurred. Finally, Samantha was forced to pull away from the other vessel, but it remained a kilometer away, and they continued to fire something at her ship. Her messenger confirmed that it was something unexpected.

"They thought we were whalers, so they were shooting sand bags at us. Now they're using a harpoon to punch a hole in the hull. Should I radio them?" a messenger asked. Samantha nodded, disappointed, though the action was good. Nothing as much as a violent storm had hit the boat yet, but she was waiting for all of Hell to break loose upon them, and waiting for the other casualties that one would expect. She was waiting for war.

Samantha brought the ship into port around the beginning of their third year. Supplies had dwindled, and the team was ready to gain some new crew members the American government sent to them. Samantha did not expect there to be so many, and over a hundred new crewmen joined her ship.

According to another messenger, one from the States), a record number of boys were joining the various branches of the military, and the branches were having a hard time keeping up with the large numbers. Many were being put on the sea because ships needed maintanence, and there was usually a constant shortage of men, but not on this ship. Samantha hated it completely, and people were constantly bugging her about numerous things.

One evening, ten of the new crewmen attacked her office, forcing themselves inside. All of them began screaming over one another for attention, and Samantha snapped.

"Can't I get some peace and quiet in here?" Samantha screamed. Suddenly, she felt weak and collapsed onto the floor. When she woke up, she couldn't believe what had just happened.

People were above her, but she couldn't move. It was a hospital setting; she could tell from the sounds. A doctor was quickly called inside to explain things to her.

"You fell inside your house, Samantha and hit your head. You've been in a coma for three years now," the doctor explained.

"No, no, you've got it all wrong. I've been on my ship, fighting in the war," Samantha said sternly.

"No, Ma'am; the war is over. It ended last night with a treaty, just like the last one. You're here, with us. Besides, your back couldn't handle being aboard a ship."

"Really? If there was a war I could. No peace, more war, and my back would be…just…fine," Samantha slurred. Her head hit the pillow, and she was off again.

**

"How is it that a woman can attain such an ability to go back and forth between times of war and peace? Was it her necklace? Or was it a little help…from the Twilight Zone?"


End file.
